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Wizards Castle - Laser Defence - Golf
Reviews Summary C+VG Issue 1 Many years ago the great Wizard Zot forged his orb of power and kept it guarded deep in the furthest recesses of his castle. In Wizard's Castle, an adventure for the games player who likes action rather than obscure clue gathering and vocabulary testing, your task is to recover the Orb of Zot. But first you have to decide just who — and what you are. You could be an elf, a dwarf, a hobbit or even a plain old human. For the purposes of this review let's say a hobbit. Having made your decision the next question is "Sex?". Wizard's Castle's programmer immediately won me over here. For when I replied, none too wittily, "Yes Please!", the computer responded with: "Cute hobbit, very cute! Now try male or female." Duly chastised I typed in "male'. The computer generates three attributes for your hobbit. These are: strength, intelligence and dexterity. These may range from 1-18, the higher the better and if any fall below 1 you lose. These qualities are added to and subtracted from through buying expensive potions of strength off dungeon vendors, being wounded in fights with the monsters, casting spells, or often just plain luck: "Drink from pool" "You feel stronger" or: "Gaze into Orb" "You feel dumber". You are also given 60 gold pieces at the start of the game and with these pay for your armour and weapon. If you choose the best weapon and plate armour you will not have enough left to buy a lamp (inexhaustible) or flares (usable once each). Once kitted out, down into the depths you go. The castle dungeons consist of eight levels — each with 64 (8x8) rooms. These are either empty, filled with monsters, treasure, castle salesmen with the latest in adventuring gear, or strange artifacts like: magic pools, crystal orbs, books or chests. These are a bit of a gamble as you can benefit from them or find nasty things happen when you tamper with them, I once went through a 267 turn Adventure with a book stuck to my sword hand for about 250 of them. A map of the level you are standing on is shown to you and each room you have explored includes a symbol of what you found there. Unexplored rooms are marked with an asterisk. Monsters may be fought for their treasure or you can run away, or — if your intelligence is over 15 — you can cast a spell on them. Stairs lead you to new levels, warps can send you anywhere in the dungeon, pits send you crashing to the next level. There are strange curses which inhibit your powers and marvellous treasures which will make you whole again. Wizard's Castle is a well thought out unpretentious game of fun. It generates a random dungeon every time and tactics for survival must be learnt quickly or you'll be an ex hobbit! Winning is achieved when you emerge from the castle entrance with the Orb of Zot grasped firmly in your hairy hobbit palms. Wizard's Castle (with Laser Defence and Golf) costs £5.00 and is available on the Sharp MZ-80K from Knights TV & Computers of Aberdeen. May the force be with you hobbits. Category:Sharp MZ-80 Games Category:C+VG Reviews Category:Knights TV & Computers Ltd